So this week was kind of crazy with prep for the activity, but everything went well. The activity was a success! Lots of people went, and we had 4 investigators there and 1 of the investigators brought a friend! There were several less active members as well. Everyone had a good time and at church Sunday several members asked when we are going to have another activity.This week we found two new investigators: Mary and Julietta (mother and daughter). Julietta was a reference from an ALB of the Hermanas of Barrio 1A. Mary has a son who is a member and she knows a lot about the church. In our first lesson with her she said that this might be her time to join the church! It was incredible! Julietta is 17 years old and is super smart. In the lesson she asked really insightful questions and was curious about what we believe. In one lesson Mary said the closing pray and Julietta said the prayer in the other lesson! This is great progress. They are both reading the Book of Mormon.I know that there is a reason that I am here and I have no doubt that these people were prepared by God for us to find and teach. I am so happy to be here. I have developed a true love for the people in this ward and in this area.

Hello Family and Friends!! This week we worked a lot with our investigators Paula and Ariel. They are such good and humble people and are willing to change everything for the gospel. The main concern is that they need to get married which is a bit complicated but I am sure that with the Lord´s help it will all work out.

We found a new investigator this week! Her name is Johanna and she is about 26 years old. She has a young son and is going to get married to the father of her son in a month! (This is very rare in Argentina!!) She is so happy and excited about life. We started to talk about eternal families and she was very touched. In our next lesson we will teach her about the plan of salvation. We are very excited to have found her!Hermana Cerrato, the Hermanas of Barrio 1A and I have been working hard this week in preparation for our activity this Friday. It is a ward activity but every member has to bring a friend. The theme is a trip to Hawaii and we will have games and everything but we will also be teaching about the plan of salvation. It is a super complicated idea where everyone is going to die on the airplane coming home from the trip to Hawaii and depending on what they did in ¨Hawaii¨ determines what kingdom of glory the will be put into. I have never heard of such an activity but I guess it´s super popular in Latino America. We are all excited and a little stressed about the activity. We will have to see how it goes, but I hope that it will be a success!

First, are pictures of the sisters in our zone at the conference with elder Christofferson.

There are pictures of our last district meeting with elder stocks =(

Oh yeah and a great week is never complete without a parade of clowns in the middle of downtown San Rafael. These people dress up like clowns and go and visit hospitals and places like that. It was super random but what they do is super sweet.And selfies!! haha

Well that´s it for this week...

I love you all so very much and I miss you all a TON!!!!Love your favorite missionary ;)Sarah

This week was a little crazy with transfers, an apostle coming and meeting the entire mission!! The devotional with Elder Christofferson was incredible! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to shake an apostle´s hand and to hear his pure and powerful testimony. My favorite part of the whole conference was when Elder Christofferson blessed us that we will be able to find insights and receive personal revelation during our scripture studies and that our personal prayers will be answered. I felt the spirit so strongly and I know that it is true. It is an apostolic blessing upon this mission! This was such an incredible experience that I will never forget!I had my first lesson with someone who just wanted to argue with us. His wife was super kind and has a ton of faith and she wanted us to teach her husband. However, her husband was kind but when it come down to the gospel, he only believed that God is not real or does not care about us and there is nothing after this life. He just wanted to argue. I had no idea what to say but Hna Carrato simply bore her testimony and then we sang a song, said a prayer and left. All we can do is listen to these people and then bare our testimonies and not argue. It was a very interesting experience but my testimony was strengthened. The gospel brings me so much peace and comfort and I know that is it true despite what others might say.Saturday night we had a lesson with our investigator Paula and her husband Ariel. We talked about their experience at church and they both said that they felt peace at the church and that their week has been more tranquil because of it! Ariel told us that he is actually a member and was baptized in the south about 5 years ago! We are going to try and find his records with the bishop this week. We also talked a little bit about the importance of marriage (because they are living together but are not married.) At first they kept saying that it is jut a piece of paper that does not mean anything to them but afterwards they said that they would both pray about it and see if it´s really what they need to do. Well, they both came to church again this week!! When we arrived at their house to pick them up Ariel was wearing a black silk dress shirt and Paula was wearing a nice blouse and dress shoes that her father had given to her. I was so proud that they understand the importance of the church and wanted to wear their very best. I am so happy to watch them progress and find what they want and need in life in the gospel. Paula told us that she wants to be baptized!! We are going to set a date with her for mid December because she still has to get married, we still have a lot to teach her and Paula has a minor mental disability and we want to make sure that she truly understands everything and has a true testimony before her baptism. But we are so happy and excited for this progress!

A LOT is going on around here!! First off TRANSFERS!! We were so sure that one of us was going to be transferred but NO!! Hna Cerrato and I are both going to stay in this amazing ward for another transfer. Wooo!!This week we started to see that our hard work the past couple of weeks is starting to pay off! We were able to have several lessons and to have several spiritual experiences. First off during an ABL we met a less active sister named Elena. Elena has been inactive for about 30 years. She is not even on the records for this ward. She gave us her information and we stopped by one day. She is wonderful! She has such a strong spirit and she was very receptive to our message. She said that she would read the book of Mormon this week and pray. She said that she wants to make sure that the church is still true for her before she comes to church. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and I think that with a little time and effort, she will make the decision to come back.Last week in an ALB we met Leticia and Ricardo and this week we were able to have a lesson with them. They are a young couple with a new baby girl. They are so friendly and kind. During the lesson Leticia asked several very thoughtful questions, and she even said the closing prayer on knees. It was amazing! They also agreed to meet with us sometime this upcoming week.A recent convert, Alicia, was going through a rough time the past couple of months. She was feeling depressed and lonely because her husband died over 15 years ago, and she lives alone. She was doubting her faith and the gospel. After several weeks of working with her and asking members to fellowship her, we have seen a drastic change. The other day we went to visit her and she was walking on sunshine! She is so much happier and cheerful her faith has grown so much. Everyday we visit her she reports on what she has read and learned this week in the scriptures and the Liahona. Before, her prayers well all about asking for strength, faith and to not feel so lonely, but now her prayers are all expressions of gratitude for her many blessing and asking for blessing for others rather than herself. She is an incredible woman and I am very privileged to have helped, even just a little bit, in changing her life and bring her the happiness and peace that can only come through living the gospel.

On Tuesday in the morning we went to look for a woman that we talked with the night before and who said that we could stop by her home. Well, she was not home but her neighbor Teresa answered the door and she let us in to teach her. It is amazing how God works in mysterious was that we cannot fully understand. I learned that day the importance of talking to everyone about the gospel because you never know who is prepared by God for you to teach.

On Thursday once again every single one of our plans and back up plans for the morning fell through! We were left with an hour and a half and no one to visit. We stopped to think about who we could possibly go to visit when the thought popped into my mind to go and visit an old reference from the hermanas that we had already tried to visit about 4 times and each time no one was home. So we went to the house and a woman named Maria answered the door and let us in. Maria, her husband and her 2 young children live in the house and they are amazing people with a lot of faith. Again, I was impressed with how God works in mysterious ways that we do not always understand. God wanted our plans to fall through that morning so that we could visit this young mother and share with her a message that she needed to hear at that exact moment. Saturday we were able to have another lesson with Paula (the investigator who came to the relief society activity last week). The lesson went well and she agreed to come to church the next day!! Paula and her husband Ariel and their little daughter Lupe came to church and stayed for all three hours. The members of the ward were so welcoming and friendly and they fit right in! It was incredible. Paula kept saying that there is so much peace here and that everyone is so kind. Paula made a comment in relief society that was very powerful and her husband participated in Sunday school. It was a great experience to see them find joy in the gospel. They both agreed to meet with us this week during the siesta (which is unheard of!!) so that they both could be there. I am so happy and excited for this amazing progress!I cannot express how grateful I am for this gospel and for the blessings of God in my life.

Similar to last week, this week was rather difficult for us. We are working hard and we have plans and back-up plans everyday, but it seems like we are just going in circles and not making much progress. We were only able to teach one lesson to an investigator this week. We really need to focus on finding new investigators and having lessons. We did however, have a lot of luck with less active members this week. This Sunday 2 families that we had had lessons with came to church! It was great to see them there and the Bishop was very happy with the number of people in church this week. We are making good relations with the ward members and they are starting to have confidence in us. We also had a great experience this Saturday. In the morning we had a lesson with a new investigator, Paula. Hermana Ortiz (a teacher in the Relief Society) came with us to the lesson. We taught about the first vision and about the authority of the church. The spirit was strong in the lesson and Paula thanked us for the lesson. After we invited her to a stake relief society activity later that day and she came! When we came to pick her up, she was already outside waiting for us! At the activity we could tell that she felt comfortable and was having a fun time. We introduced her to several of the sisters in the ward and Hermana Ortiz showed her around as well. The activity was a great success and we were so happy to have Paula there. She was unable to come to church this week but she said that she wants to next week!I’m not discouraged. I know that there is something I need to learn from this time. Also, even if we have a bad week or a difficult week, there is always at least one event or miracle that makes it all worth it!!

More flowers because it is too beautiful here!! I realized the other day that I basically only send pictures of flowers and food home haha.Here is a picture of Hermana Alicia Ochoa and I in her house. She is a recent convert of just over a year, and she is such a kind loving person.This sign is on the main door to our apartment building. The people here take their siesta very seriously!! It´s annoying for us because we can’t proselyte and on pday we cant go shopping.So the weather on Friday was CRAZY!! There was a viento sonda which means that a strong and hot wind blew in from Chili. Because Mendoza province is a desert, the wind brought a ton of dirt. It was basically a dust storm. So earlier in the day the sky was perfectly blue without a cloud in the sky. Well you can see in the picture the crazy big dust cloud that blew through the city!! Luckily we were in the pension. We had to stay inside for an extra 2 hours that day because the wind was dangerous. There is a picture of a tree that fell down around the corner from our apartment.Happy Argentine mother´s day!! Sunday was mother´s day here (because it´s springtime here). Here are some pictures of a card we received from the primary in the ward (super cute) and a card we the hermana missionaras made for the sisters in the ward.Here are some pictures of our new pension! It´s pretty sweet!!Love,Hermana Sarah MalstromP.S. I forgot to mention that Elder Christofferson is coming to our mission!!!!!!! The whole mission is going to have a special reunion on the 8th of November to listen to him speak!! This is such a great opportunity to hear an apostle and to be together as a whole mission!!

This week was very difficult for Hermana Cerrato and I. We had several planned lessons with investigators and future investigators this week, but ALL of them fell through. Every singles cita(date/appointment) we had planned or tried to plan didn´t happen. The worst was on Saturday. We felt that our lesson plan for the Gomez family that day was inspired and we had two members that were going to teach with us. Everything was perfect; we called and confirmed the night before and the members had their testimonies prepared and everything but when we got to the house at the designated time, no one was home. We called the daughter and she said that her mother was working. We were very frustrated. We have been working for a long time with this family and they are not progressing the way we would like them to. We have been praying to discover what Silvana´s (the mother´s) doubts are. That same day we walked all over our area trying to contact references and no one answered or was interested. The next day none of the people that we had invited to attend church came. We were honestly very discouraged. However, Hermana Cerrato said that the times that are most difficult and discouraging in a mission only signify that a great miracle is on its way. She compared it to hiking a mountain: the final part before reaching the peak of the mountain is the most steep and challenging and it´s easy to give up, but the end reward pushes you to keep going and you reach your beautiful and rewarding destination. Well, on Sunday night we had a lesson planned with a less active hermano who has a very big heart and a desire to be active but has a lot of problems in his family. His wife and daughter are always in the house but they slam the doors and ignore us when we come to teach him. He has been praying for a long time that his family could be receptive to the gospel because what he wants more than anything is to have an eternal family. We planned a lesson about having hope in Jesus Christ and in the gospel. When we arrived at his house his happily told us that his son-in-law Diego was going to attend the lesson. We taught them both and the spirit was so strong. Our lesson plan changed as we taught what Diego and Hermano Alcalde needed to hear. Diego said that he knew that what we were saying was true and that he is open to more lessons with us. He agreed to attended church the next Sunday and he said that he will try and invite his wife to listen to our next lesson. This was the miracle we were waiting for all week. It is amazing how the Lord puts challenges in our way to test our faith and that he always blesses us in ways that we do not expect.